Saturday, September 29, 2007

Not all the Taliban live in Afghanistan, you will need to check out the links to get a proper feel for the story.

The Des Moines Register ran an editorial today about Steve Bitterman’s firing (see also here) from Southwestern Community College in Red Oak. Bitterman says he was fired because he told students that the biblical “garden of Eden” story shouldn’t be interpreted literally (read: as accurate historical reporting); students say it was because he was hostile and derogatory toward them......more

From the Helicopter Parents link.

College students are adults. They should act like adults. That means finally jumping into the big, bad world and taking care of their own problems. Lodging their own complaints.

Not whining to Mom and Dad about something that offends them.

Apparently these helicopter parents just can't stop hovering - even after their "children" have reached adulthood....more

Words fail me so perhaps I shall have to borrow a phrase from the Rude Pundit, what a batshit crazy redneck Reed Walters really is.

While I was watching Reed give his performance before the cameras I couldn't contain an audible groan when he invoked Jesus's part in keeping the march peaceful. This groan however was nothing compared to the groan that I emitted when all the Jesus loving folks of Jena applauded this absurd half wit.

My heart goes out to any atheist who resides in Jena or to any atheists that find themselves in any one of the thousands of Jenas that dot America, what a godawful kind of place to have to live.

Louisiana district attorney Reed Walters, whose prosecution of six black teens for the beating of a white student has attracted a throng of civil rights leaders and activists to the tiny town of Jena, says Jesus Christ is to thank for keeping protests peaceful.

"I firmly believe that had it not been for the direct intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ last Thursday, a disaster would have happened," Walters said of a protest in support of the teens which drew thousands last week.

"The Lord Jesus Christ put his influence on those people, and they responded accordingly," he continued.more and video.

And while I'm doing the Jesus thing here's a couple more wankers getting all godified.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Attacks against the US president have dominated speeches by world leaders for the third straight day at the UN General Assembly.

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president, led the lambasting on Wednesday, saying George Bush, with Iraqi blood on his hands, had "much to atone for and little to lecture us on".

"His hands drip with innocent blood of many nationalities," Mugabe said in a typically fiery speech in New York. "He kills in Iraq; he kills in Afghanistan. And this is supposed to be our master on human rights?"more

MADRID (AFP) — US President George W. Bush threatened nations with retaliation if they did not vote for a UN resolution backing the Iraq war, according to a transcript published Wednesday of a conversation he had with former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar.

In the transcript of a meeting on February 22, 2003 -- a month before the US-led invasion of Iraq -- published in El Pais newspaper, Bush tells Aznar that nations such as Mexico, Angola, Chile and Cameroon must know that the security of the United States is at stake.

He says during the meeting on his ranch in Texas that Angola stood to lose financial aid while Chile could see a free trade agreement held up in the US Senate if they did not back the resolution, the left-wing paper said. more

.Among other things.Egyptian leader Abdel Nasser dies of a heart attack and the Warren Commission concludes there was no conspiracy surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy and gunman Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Yea right. more

Roberts is a man after my own heart, he's usually right on the money, never more so than with this article and furnished with some good links.

How easily the situation ends up as it is today, the perfect breeding ground for such excesses is a nation divided. When organisations such as the ACLU are demonised by the right wing, the law and order crowd, the rednecks and others who haven't got the collective brains to realise that the ACLU is fighting for all Americans, and is in fact probably the most American institute in the country.

America’s Police Brutality PandemicBy Paul Craig Roberts

Self-righteous Americans justify these monstrous crimes as necessary to ensure their own safety from terrorist attack. Yet, Americans are in far greater danger from their own police forces than they are from foreign terrorists. Ironically, Bush’s “war on terror” has made Americans less safe at home by diminishing US civil liberty and turning an epidemic of US police brutality into a pandemic.

The only terrorist most Americans will ever encounter is a policeman with a badge, nightstick, mace and Taser. A Google search for “police brutality videos” turns up........

Police forces have always attracted bullies with authoritative personalities who desire to beat senseless anyone who does not quake in their presence. (and correctional officers. me) In the past police could get away with brutalizing blacks but not whites. Today white citizens are as likely as racial minorities to be victims of police brutality.

Who is a terrorist? If the police and the US government have the mentality of airport security, they cannot tell a terrorist from an 86-year old Marine general on his way to give a speech at West Point. Retired Marine Corps General Joseph J. Foss was delayed and nearly had his Medal of Honor confiscated. Airport security regarded the pin on the metal as a weapon that the 86-year old Marine general and former governor of South Dakota could use to hijack an airliner and commit a terrorist deed.......more

Thursday, September 27, 2007

I was having a day off today but I happened on these two articles, both need to be read in order. I'm not going to write up a long preamble, suffice to say if both these articles are to be believed, and going by the quality of the reporting I would say they have to carry a fair bit of weight, then this is somewhat of a scandal, and as you read further down the second report it's also somewhat scary.

You will have to scroll down the apparently blank page of the first report to find the story.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

.Come back Saddam all is forgiven. This article apart, if ever there were crimes against humanity to be answered for they surely should be answered by George W Bush and his sycophantic toady Tony Blair.

They crossed the high seas; they poured out their billions; they sacrificed their sons … to "liberate" Iraqis … but what we, the women of Iraq got, is article 41.

It gave the women of Iraq the most progressive of all Arab and Islamic women's rights legislation until this very day. No discrimination in salaries, no discrimination in uniforms, the separated Mums get to keep the home until the children are of age, and so many other items that made the female community of Iraq one of the most progressive female communities within the Arab, Islamic and regional states – from that time … until we got "liberated".

BANKING ON HEAVEN reveals the corruption, the legislatures failure to help, the Mormon Church's role, and the plight of innocent members of the FLDS polygamous sect.

BANKING ON HEAVEN is the deep story behind the headlines. While politicians brag about liberating the women and children of Afghanistan and Iraq, BANKING ON HEAVEN asks who is going to liberate the women and children of Colorado City.

.No matter what you think of Ahmadinejad, and believe me I'm far from a fan of the evil little shit, I must agree with the writer of this article, collectively America didn't present a very pleasant face to Ahmadinejad in particular and the world in general.

Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad comes to town and we lose our national etiquette.

The past several days have not been particularly good ones for the country. Far from taking advice from Emily Post, we were in the words of Columbia President, Lee Bollinger, petty and cruel, I would also add arrogant and schizophrenic.

Petty, because our narrow-mindedness overruled our need to show respect, cruel, because of the way we treated an invited guest, arrogant because our self-importance caused us the lose sight of our own values, and schizophrenic because we couldn't decide if we were a world leader or local bully. Thus, we may have given Ahmadinejad more credibility than he deserves.more

.Of all the pundits that scribble a few words on the biggest circus in town, Lawrence is peerless.Ever since I discovered this knowledgeable man and his easy style of writing I have been a great fan, in his latest feature, Unfinished Business, Lawrence gives us his take on the characters involved in "Spygate."

As always a first class and informative read, I will even forgive him having a swipe at my man Montoya in this instance, he has in the past written well of Monty so I guess on this occasion I will have to swallow the pill.

If your interest is F1 here is a direct link to Lawrence's previous articles, perhaps I should say timeless articles for the subject doesn't have to be contemporary to be extremely readable.

.I wish the jury would stop buggering about and get the little shit convicted.

The jury in the Phil Spector murder trial completed its 11th day of deliberations without a verdict today as the Sheriff's Department launched an investigation into what authorities said was an implied threat against the judge in the case.

A post on a MySpace page titled the Official Team Spector site stated, "The evil judge should die," possibly a threat against Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler, who has run the Spector trial for months.

The post was signed "Chelle," which is how some friends know Rachelle Spector.........more

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Senate is expected to vote as early as Tuesday on a Bosnia-style plan to subdivide Iraq on ethnic lines, touted by backers as the sole hope of forging a federal state out of sectarian strife.

Though the measure is non-binding, and would not force a change in President George W. Bush's war strategy even if it passes, the vote will provide a key test of an idea drawing rising interest in Washington.

Advocates say the plan, championed by Democratic senator and presidential hopeful Joseph Biden, offers a route to a political solution in Iraq that could allow US troops to eventually go home without leaving chaos behind.more

Just when you thought you'd heard it all, I tell you there are going to be some fucked up heads on every side of the divide before this mess is over and an awful lot of murder victims.

A Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents by scattering pieces of "bait," such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then killing Iraqis who pick up the items, according to military court documents.

The classified program was described in investigative documents related to recently filed murder charges against three snipers who are accused of planting evidence on Iraqis they killed.

"Baiting is putting an object out there that we know they will use, with the intention of destroying the enemy," Capt. Matthew P. Didier, the leader of an elite sniper scout platoon attached to the 1st Battalion of the 501st Infantry Regiment, said in a sworn statement. "Basically, we would put an item out there and watch it. If someone found the item, picked it up and attempted to leave with the item, we would engage the individual as I saw this as a sign they would use the item against U.S. Forces." more

Computers are a big waste of time, a description that is neither true or accurate.Computers are a big time waster, now we're getting somewhere.

Blogs are the biggest time waster, most true, most undoubtedly true.

So for more hours wasted/spent than I would care to admit to, what have we got? a few clips from MEMRI TV.

I suppose I could compare video clips with frogs, you have to kiss an awful lot before you find a prince. So having kissed a whole pile of frogs this morning I offer up these, well not exactly princes, shall we say princes in waiting.

I have in the past linked to many a MEMRI clip but what I offer up are a few of the lesser known ones.The only one of the more popular ones I shall link to is Wafa Sultan, but by now I would have thought everyone on the planet must have already watched it.

Monday, September 24, 2007

.
Crooks & Liars has a clip of Scott Pelley interviewing Ahmadinejad for 60Minutes, what I reported on back in January (below) turned up today in the interview today.
Direct link to videos, the relavent section is in part two (4 minutes total)Part one is 9 minutes, and having watched it in its entirety, Pelley is a Bush whore.

Delivered by Pelley to Ahmadinejad was what Bush would have said to Ahmadinejad had they been face to face.

What is writ below is virtually word perfect for Bush's direct quote that was delivered to Ahmadinejad.
Today as then, it would appear that irony, bloody irony even, is a complete stranger to this dimwit of a man.

Originally posted January 20th 2007

Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings. (and fools)

Who speaks of whom?

"You've made terrible choices for your people. You've isolated your nation. You've taken a nation of proud and honourable people, and you've made your country the pariah of the world. You've threatened countries with nuclear weapons. You've defied international accord. And you're slowly but surely isolating yourself."
Honestly, you just can’t make this stuff up.

He then went on to say a couple of other things. . (link dead) but look in the left hand sidebar at the first Bush Quote.

..
A tad ironic really given that I was calling the Bangladeshies fit to burn in my previous post over their dark age mentality, one doesn't have to travel to the other side of the world to find the ignorant and the delusional.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. David Vitter, R-La., earmarked $100,000 in a spending bill for a Louisiana Christian group that has challenged the teaching of Darwinian evolution in the public school system and to which he has political ties......

The group's stated mission is to "persuasively present biblical principles in the centers of influence on issues affecting the family through research, communication and networking." Until recently, its Web site contained a "battle plan to combat evolution," which called the theory a "dangerous" concept that "has no place in the classroom." The document was removed after a reporter's inquiry.......

In a video clip the group posted on the Internet site YouTube, Mills said the two senators' situations are far different. "Craig is denying the allegations," he said. "Vitter has repented of the allegations. He sought forgiveness, reconciliation and counseling."more

Ah yes let us not forget the counseling, must be the the biggest growth industry in America.

So much for separation of church and state.

Take a look see who sponsored the billboard, seems I wouldn't have to travelling an awful long way to meet the ignorant and delusional either.

"The treatment of Padilla ranks as one of the most serious abuses after 9/11," says Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University Law School in Washington. "This is a case that would have shocked the Framers. This is precisely what many of the drafters of the Constitution had in mind when they tried to create a system of checks and balances."

Human rights activists, too, are alarmed by what they see as the continuing lack of oversight and accountability. "What happened to [Padilla] in military custody will be seen by history as one of the more shameful acts this country has taken against one of its own citizens," says Hina Shamsi, deputy director of the Law and Security Program at Human Rights First.

.......a separate group of lawyers has filed a civil lawsuit in South Carolina seeking a judicial ruling declaring the US government's treatment of Padilla in the brig illegal and unconstitutional.

Justice Department lawyers are expected to ask that Padilla's suit be thrown out of court because the litigation would likely reveal state secrets about Padilla's interrogation, legal analysts say. Such a move would again prevent public scrutiny of the torture allegations, these analysts say.more

Make of it what you will.Russian Military Intelligence Analysts are reporting today that one of the United States most secretive spy satellites, the KH-13, targeting Iran was 'destroyed in its orbit' with its main power generator powered by the radioactive isotope Pu-238 surviving re-entry and crashing in a remote region of the South American Nation of Peru, and where hundreds are reported to be ill from radiation poisoning.......

Most astonishing about these reports, however, are that they state that it was the Americans themselves who destroyed their own spy satellite with the attack upon it being made by the United States Air Forces' 30th Space Wing located at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

This incident further fuels the intrigue involving the United States War Leaders plans to attack Iran in their attempt to engulf the entire Middle East in Total War, but, against which, according to Russian Military Intelligence Analysts, a 'high ranking and significant' faction of the American Military Establishment is opposed to. more

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The Gor Blimey Hall of Fame

We aren’t writing about the investigations into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann or any possible suspects: we don’t want to prejudice a legal process that is working in a most satisfactory way. - John Blacksmith

Read the Summers and Swan book if you want an impartial intelligent insight. It debunks conspiracy theorists amateur analysis - Jim Gamble

"I have seen no basis at any stage for challenging the integrity of the police."

Lord Justice Leveson - The Leveson Inquiry

We never take for granted the continued support and trust which Londoners feel for their Met.Bernard Hogan-Howe

Bush told reporters that “One day, people will look back at this moment in history and say, ‘Thank God there were courageous people willing to serve, because they laid the foundations for peace for generations to come.’

George W Bush on Iraq 2008

"It is sad that we live in a time when a talented and honourable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeded from doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons," Bush said in Crawford, Texas.

''The effects of radiation do not come to people that are happy and laughing. They come to people that are weak-spirited, that brood and fret.''

“I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude, and I believe most Iraqis express that. I mean, the people understand that we've endured great sacrifice to help them. That's the problem here in America. They wonder whether or not there is a gratitude level that's significant enough in Iraq.”

Bush interview 60 Minutes 1/14/07

“All hurricanes are acts of God because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that.” – John Hagee

''Once Iraq becomes a very rich and prosperous country... we would hope that some consideration be given to repaying the United States some of the mega-dollars that we have spent here in the last eight years.

We were hoping that there would be a consideration of a payback because the United States right now is in close to a very serious economic crisis and we could certainly use some people to care about our situation as we have cared about theirs.''

Dana Rohrabacher (R) June 2011

''It's not natural for animals to eat each other, they have taken on the nature of Satan. What is natural for animals is to live in the way they were created in the Garden of Eden.''